Insulin has been shown to inhibit rat growth hormone (GH) gene transcription. The effects of insulin were therefore tested on the expression of a transfected human GH gene. A 2.6-kilobase EcoRI fragment of the human GH gene was propagated in pUC18 and transfected by calcium-phosphate shock into HeLa and GC cells, respectively. Transfected cells grown in serum-free medium for 72 h expressed human GH measured by specific radioimmunoassay, incorporation of [35S] methionine into newly synthesized GH, and the presence of the appropriately sized protected transcripts seen after RNase protection assay. Immunoprecipitation analysis showed that insulin (0.7-7 nM) suppressed both the basal as well as the hydrocortisone (100 nM)-stimulated expression of newly synthesized 22-kDa GH in a dose-dependent fashion. Insulin (7 nM) also suppressed the basal and hydrocortisone-stimulated GH mRNA transcripts in these cells. Control nontransfected cells did not express human GH. Cells transfected with the truncated pOGH gene and pTKGH gene failed to respond to insulin treatment, whereas the human GH promoter was able to confer insulin responsiveness to the chloramphenicol acetyltransferase reporter gene. cis-Acting regulatory sequences residing on the 497-base pair 5'-flanking region of the human GH gene therefore appear to be a requirement for human GH gene response to the insulin signal.